I miss
the dungeon crawlers on the PC and with no real Dungeons & Dragons
game available or more specifically Diablo III, what is a
gamer to do? The answer is Torchlight! If youíve seen the
trailer or the screenshots for Torchlight, than you may be
thinking that this is a Diablo clone but with more stylised cartoony
graphics. If you are, youíre actually correct because Torchlight
is created by two of the designers of that popular "D" franchise and
this game returns dungeon crawlers to its humble roots in this
addictively entertaining RPG hack and slash game.

The
story revolves around you and your pet (thatís right), pets play a
very cool and integral part to the game as you have been called to
investigate a rogue hero. Although Torchlight is a humble mining
village that happens to be built next to one of the worldís greatest
deposits of ember, a mineral with magical properties, it seems that
our good hero Alric has been corrupted by its magic. Your objective
is simple, explore the hundreds of dungeons in search of answers
about Alric and of course, booty up with all the goodies that you
find. Unfortunately, everything and anything in these dungeons likes
a good hero luncheon but thankfully, you have a plethora of weapons
and armour to assist you.

Before
embarking on your quest, you need to select one of three character
classes available that include hybrid versions of the classic RPG
fighter, thief and mage. There is also an element of steam punk
employed into the game and although it contains all the monsters and
weapons from the Sword & Sorcery genre, it also contains technology
from guns to even robots.

Once you
have chosen your character and given them a name, youíre pretty much
thrown into the deep end as you slash, shoot and magic your way to
victory. Just like the standard RPG archetype, you are awarded
experience points for killing them that allows you to level up which
is increasing your statistic to make your character more powerful.
The game is pretty much a point and click interface which works well
but the inclusion of a pet, such as a dog or cat does add some cool
tactics to the game. Not only do they help you in battle but they
can also run back to town for supplies which saves a tremendous
amount of time.

The
level design of Torchlight is well thought out and certain levels
give great depth perception. The good thing about the level design
is that as you progress, the levels change and itís not just a
palette change but you can actually see things change in the
environment. The missions in the game involve your traditional hack
Ďní slash variety of find an object for an NPC, kill a NPC etc, and
if you go on the side quests, they will give you more chances to
find better items and of course, assist in quickly building up your
experience points.

Graphically, the world of Torchlight looks quite cartoony with
stylised characters, vibrant colours and larger than life
characters. Even though itís a completely different view to the
World of Warcraft, it sort of mimics their cartoon inspired
graphics. It should also be noted that this game is quite violent
and because itís more cartoon than realistic, it doesnít pose any
huge disturbances but it would make a few horror movies blush with
the overtop usage of it. Thanks to Diablo composer Matt Uelman, the
soundtrack of Torchlight gives the player a great ambient musical
experience that adds to the whole RPG atmosphere.

Final
Thoughts? Torchlight is a very addictive RPG experience that offers
a good old fashioned RPG experience that although does try to be
clever, actually succeeds, especially with how easy the game is to
play. Best of all is that the game can be played on a variety of
different PC configurations with a minimal amount of tweaking
required, if at all any. The engine is perfect and the graphics
actually suit this faux steam punk D&D universe and if I could only
ask for one thing, it will be multiplayer. However donít let this
impede the purchase because as a solo-player game, this title far
exceeded my expectations and delivers on many levels.